What you’re REALLY eating from the drive-thru (it’s lethal)

Yesterday, I issued yet another crystal-clear warning about how dangerous plastics are to your health and longevity.  

I also hinted towards a common place where exposure is high: Processed foods.  

In fact, yet another concerning new study found that phthalates are also a staple feature of fast food like chicken nuggets, burgers, and pizza.  

Here’s how these foods can WRECK your health… and what you should eat instead.  

Drive-thru dangers 

Previous research has already shown that people who eat more fast food have higher levels of phthalates in their bodies. But in a first-of-its-kind study, researchers actually bought the food and tested it directly.  

The researchers gathered burgers, fries, chicken nuggets, burritos, pizza, and unused gloves (used for food prep and serving) from six different fast-food chains. Then they analyzed each item for the presence of nearly a dozen chemicals—including eight phthalates and three plasticizers.  

Results revealed the presence of ten chemicals in the samples:  

• More than 80 percent of the foods contained a phthalate called DnBP.  
• 70 percent contained a phthalate called DEHP.  
• A whopping 86 percent contained the replacement plasticizer DEHT.  

(Add those to your list of acronyms to avoid!) 

The meat items contained the highest levels of these chemicals, whether chicken or beef. And if that isn’t enough to convince you never to hit the drive-thru again, I don’t know what is.  

Two steps back 

Now, call me crazy, but don’t you think companies should be required to test any product involved in the production of their food, to ensure its safety? (Seems like a fairly obvious question to me… and yet, here we are.)  

Phthalates—such as DEHP and DnBP, mentioned above—are commonly used in food packaging and food processing equipment. And as we discussed yesterday, these chemicals can leach out and interfere with your hormones, paving the way to a long list of disastrous effects: from reproductive and developmental issues, to obesity, immune dysfunction, asthma, cancer, heart problems, and more.  

That’s why some places have banned those chemicals—and looked for a replacement,  like DEHT. But we just don’t know what that replacement chemical does to us… making us guinea pigs in yet another giant experiment, courtesy of Big Business. 

Honestly, why would we think that this new chemical would behave any differently, though?!  

It’s a tale as old as time: Companies are forced to remove one bad ingredient, and all they do is replace it with another horrible ingredient… at the expense of our health.  

So since there’s no apparent end to this madness in sight, I can only encourage you to make healthier choices for yourself. And as this research shows, an important way to do just that is through buying real, unprocessed, whole foods, and cooking and eating them at home.  

In fact, I hope you’ll join me from your kitchen as I whip up easy, nutritious meals in mine! Tune into my Cooking with Dr. Fred show (available on YouTube and Instagram).  

Source: 

“Fast Foods Contain Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals.” Medscape Medical News, 09/10/2021. (medscape.com/viewarticle/962638)